Goldman Steals the Show

On Wednesday, the news was all Goldman Sachs (GS), the firm most of the country loves to hate and admire. Goldman set the bar high for all of Wall Street by setting aside $18 billion to pay salaries, benefits and bonuses compared with $16.5 billion last year.

Goldman employs more people than last year 29,905 compared with 26,467. Being that Goldman did have write downs, albeit less than its peers, average bonus per employee has dropped from $623,000 last year to $601,900 this year even though the total pool is a new record.

Lehman Brothers (LEH) CEO Richard Fuld was awarded approximately $35 million of restricted shares for 2007. Today, when Lehman announces its earnings, we will find out how the rest of the firm fared.

The credit markets are still doing flip flops, and analysts are not sure if the writedowns are slowing or over-influencing earnings and bonus pools. Analysts, along with luxury retailers and Hampton-based realtors are anxiously awaiting the results.

Disclosure: Lehman Brothers (LEH) and Goldman Sachs (GS) are constituents in the Clear Global Exchanges, Brokers and Asset Managers Index licensed for the ETF: (EXB).